This page discusses some of the historical references and inspiration for the architectural elements of the kitchen design project. This part of the project was created as part of the D-201 Architectural practice and design class at SFIA.1801 Fairview in 1986About the areaArchitectural and visual inspirationBuilding and site history:
1801 Fairview is one of 2 adjoining buildings owned by the Fairview House. 1801 is a 2+ story, 5 bedroom house shingle style home from around 1910, while the adjoining building is a stucco duplex from the mid 1960's. The interior is common to many midrange Victorian influenced bay area home
from that era. Details include cove ceilings and picture molding, stubouts for gas lighting, built in cabinets, cold closet, beveled window glass, curved windows(no longer extant), servant's bedroom, redwood gutters, and many other interior details. In the early sixties the shingles and original exterior trim were stuccoed over. Due to many years of neglect by the longtime land lord, much of the building's interior plaster and woodwork remains, (albeit under a few layers of off white paint). People history:Curiously the building was seldom occupied as a single family dwelling. A fraternal community organization used the house as a meeting place in the fifties, and, since the sixties 1801 has been occupied by several incarnations of a collective household. Both buildings were purchased the residents about ten years ago. See the main Fairview House web site for more information on the Fairview House. About the Area:1801 Fairview is located in South Berkeley, in what was Lorin. Lorin was a small city between Berkeley and Oakland, that was a thriving ethnically mixed business district at the turn of the century and a stop on the rail line between Berkeley and Oakland. The late thirties and forties saw tremendous growth in the area, and many African American emigrants from all across the country to work in the new industries and shipyards. Conditions in the area deteriorated in the eighties to early nineties with the recession, real estate market collapse and numerous shootings arising from the crack epidemic. Fairview Street is the setting for a book on the violence of that era, "Altars in the Street". For more detailed information see the Berkeley Historical Society and the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Currently the neighborhood is changing quickly as gentrification sweeps across the East bay from San Francisco. Real estate prices are p dramatically, drug dealing is down, but not out, and the character of the neighborhood has begun to change as more and more houses are fixed up and sold . Geographic description:The land is on the sloping flatlands on the east side of San Francisco bay, around a mile from the original bay shoreline. The location appears to have been a few hundred yards from a branch of Derby Creek in one direction, and not much farther from a branch of Temescal Creek in the other. A smaller tributary or spring appears to run underneath the building. Historical records depict the area as a broad plain studded with oaks, willow thickets, streams and marshland, and redwood groves going up toward the hills. Bay fog rolls in almost daily keeping the area cool in the summer, except for days when it holds offshore. The streams provided the area with a rare bay area resource-- perennial water sources. Flowing water can be found year round at about five feet below the current grade level. Architectural and visual inspirations:
The design is influenced by both the purely practical world of the restaurant kitchen-- the space must be able to easily and efficiently feed many people, and, the comforting homieness and social center of the residential kitchen. Examples looked at are the kitchens at retreat and education centers such as Orr and Wilbur Hot Springs, Taleisen, youth hostels and the like where many people share the usage of one kitchen. Another influence is the traditional farmhouse style kitchen-- it serves a similar role to the kitchen at fairview.
The architectural language used in the remodel design is influenced by both the the arts and crafts/ California shingle style building of Maybeck, Morgan , and Greene and greene, and the Victorian vernacular common to many home (including this one) in this area of Berkeley. One of the design goals is to preserve as much architectural character as possible, which suggests staying with extant vernacular for many design elemenets. Another inspiration to the design process is the old Integral Urban House in west Berkeley. The systems design and water/energy ideas have been greatly influenced by John Todds work with living machines. The small scale demonstration machine at the Point Reyes hostel was an inspiration that the technology might work and be maintainable by the non-technically oriented.
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